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Lucus is part of the Action for Young Carers in Nottingham who provide support, days out and time away from his responsibilities.

He has ambitions of going to university and becoming a marine biologist and has expressed worry that this won't happen.

Emma added: "Lucus has taken so much on, caring for me, his siblings, moving around - but he has maintained really good attendance and it has not affected his grades.

"I'm trying not to let him know I'm worried.

"I don't understand why in this day and age we can't get children into schools.

"I feel that we were discriminated against because of our housing situation which was out of our control.

"What's the point of picking four schools if it's going to be chosen for him anyway? I'd rather they just chose straight away to avoid the stress."

Emma is now in the process of appealing, which is being supported by a letter from the Djanogly Northgate Academy.

She said she is more concerned with getting Lucus into a school to put his mind at rest, rather than which school it is.

"My children mean the world to me, and I've told him I'm trying to sort this out.

"I think we were just really unlucky, the timing wasn't right for us.

"I understand how hard it is to get into schools, and I know he's not the only one - I feel upset for all of them.

"I just find it frustrating the lack of support and the appeal process just doesn't seem simple."

Nick Lee, director of education at Nottingham City Council, said: “We have complete sympathy with Ms Salmon’s position and we recognise the potential difficulties that can arise in individual cases within the application system.

“Academies have to make their decision based on where a child is living at the closing date for applications, rather than any future plans to relocate. This is to make sure that places are allocated as fairly as possible.

"In this instance, the academies will have judged Lucus to be situated too far from their school when he was living in Sneinton.

“However, we will now support Ms Salmon and work with her to find a Year Seven place for Lucus which works for her family in their new location.”